cheese

Scope: Aged Gouda and aged sharp Cheddar (water-soluble extracts).

Note: The explanatory power of any single peptide alone is limited: in Broadbent 2002, the correlation coefficients between a single peptide's concentration and the bitterness score stayed at 0.56 and 0.58, versus r=0.84 for a combined 2-peptide index (the sum of each concentration divided by its highest value in the data set) (see limits).

Scope: Aged sharp Cheddar versus young mild Cheddar. A taste-reconstitution experiment.

Note: The sequences are as given in the abstract (residue numbers are not written because they are not given in the abstract).

Scope: Experimental fresh cheese (CoF) made by fermenting high-protein concentrated milk reconstituted from micellar casein powder (8.5% protein, about 74 mM calcium). Bitterness rated by 12-13 members per session of a 25-member trained panel.

Note: This paper's conclusion section summarizes that "the PrtP-negative strains did not produce bitterness," but this is at odds, in the strength of the assessment, with the figures in the results section (see the corresponding evidence's limits line), and the discussion states that cheese made with LTH 7112 was significantly more bitter than the directly acidified control.

Scope: Cheddar cheese, aged 6 months. Sensory evaluation was carried out at the 6-month point.

Note: 2026-10-21 (full-text re-evaluation, batch 2): in the full text, the abstract (bitterness enhanced) and the sensory results in the text (weaker than without nisin) run in opposite directions; as neither can be settled, the claim was lowered from supported to preliminary.

Scope: Trained-panel sensory evaluation of 25 commercially available U.S. shredded Cheddar brands (2 lots each), followed by consumer preference ratings of 10 representative brands by 151 consumers; analyzed with analysis of variance, principal component analysis, and external preference mapping.

Note: Bitterness was identified as one driver of overall dislike. A powdery appearance also lowered appearance and overall liking ratings.

Scope: A study relating sensory profiles before and after heating to physicochemical parameters in 4 categories of AOP/PDO blue cheeses from France's Massif Central: Fourme d'Ambert, Fourme de Montbrison, Bleu d'Auvergne, and Bleu des Causses. Along with saltiness and sourness, bitterness was recorded as one of the basic tastes distinguishing these 4 categories after heating, and correlations with physicochemical parameters were also shown.

Note: The paper does not describe bitterness as either a 『欠陥』 (in translation: "defect") or a 『望ましい風味』 (in translation: "desirable flavor"). It treats it neutrally as an attribute distinguishing categories; this entry likewise does not overstate its significance. No peer-reviewed paper addressing bitterness in Gorgonzola itself was found, so the study of French AOP cheeses is included as a related blue-cheese lineage (see the corresponding research lead).

Scope: Layer: food. A human sensory panel (n=7) using 4 commercial cheeses and beer. Baraka was selected through a preliminary screening of 71 cheese brands.

Note: The correspondence between the total free-fatty-acid concentration and masking activity is a descriptive trend across 4 samples, and the fatty-acid composition ratio itself was nearly the same among the 4 cheeses (all shared the feature that oleic acid, palmitic acid, myristic acid, and stearic acid accounted for 60% or more of total free fatty acids). Details of the 71-brand screening results themselves are in the Supporting Information, and the main text gives no figures.

Scope: Layer: solution (fractions of the cheese's oily extract; a mixture mimicking the cheese's fatty-acid composition). Human sensory evaluation (a method comparing against a 7-point scale of standard quinine solutions).

Note: The evaluation of the mixed fatty-acid solution had large variance among panelists (ANOVA F-test p=0.001). The authors cite the low solubility of the saturated fatty acids (myristic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid) as one cause. With oleic acid alone (0.5 mM), bitterness was suppressed down to the equivalent of 0.0032-0.0038%, and the variance among panelists was also small (F-test p=0.131) (a different part of the same experiment as the claim in the existing concept-taste-mixture-suppression entry).

Scope: 50% reduced-fat Cheddar, a single isogenic starter, a trained panel (n=14).

Note: A result from a model system (reduced-fat, single-strain starter). Extrapolation to ordinary cheese is limited.

Scope: A proposal envisaging high-protein fermented dairy products, including concentrated fresh cheese.

Note: Based on the statement 『a sensible selection and combination of prtP-positive and -negative starter strains might be a useful tool...and should be investigated in future studies』. This is not a demonstrated method.

Scope: Reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, ripened for 150 days. Chemical, microbiological, and sensory analyses were performed at regular intervals.

Note: The abstract does not give the specific score difference for "markedly lower," and the full text was not checked, so it is not written here.

Scope: Aged Cheddar cheese compared across 4 groups: control, D. hansenii alone, Y. lipolytica alone, and both species combined (the country of the experiment is not given in the abstract).

Note: The specific sensory scale and panel size are not stated in the abstract.

Scope: As above: the group combining both species in a 4-group comparative experiment.

Note: The abstract does not explicitly say 『苦味を避けた』 (in translation: "avoided bitterness"). It only describes this group as having 『good strong flavour』, in contrast to the single-species groups; the absence of a mention of bitterness cannot establish 『苦味が生じなかった』 (in translation: "that no bitterness developed"). (2026-10-22, expansion stage N5 stage C batch 6: Codex's check against the source confirmed that the abstract only describes good flavor for the combined group and does not say bitterness was absent, so debittering rests on a reading of this abstract alone; lowered from supported to preliminary.)

Scope: Same as above (Cheddar cheese, aged 6 months).

Note: The combination that produced 『脱苦味効果』 (in translation: "a debittering effect") (Lb. casei + nisin-producing strain) and the combination rated as having 『風味強度が最高』 (in translation: "the highest flavor intensity") (Lb. casei + liposome-encapsulated nisin) are distinguished in the abstract, and this note is written so as not to conflate them. NFB, which ranked first for overall quality in the text, had Lb. casei added alone without nisin, and ISNB, combined with the nisin-producing strain, ranked below NF. (2026-10-21, expansion stage N5 stage C batch 5: Codex's check against the source confirmed that the sensory test was an overall-quality rating by 5 people with no numerical bitterness intensity and no test, and that milk heat treatment also differed with and without Lb. casei; lowered from supported to preliminary.)

Scope: The same 1996 review of cheese bitterness.

Scope: Layer: recipe (an introduction by a cook). Not a sensory experiment. Posted on the Japan Umami Seasoning Association's recipe site (Seiko Ogawa, 2020-04-02).

Note: What the original text explicitly links is the combination of 「クレソンの苦味」 (in translation: "the bitterness of the watercress") and 「アーモンドの香ばしさ」 (in translation: "the toasty aroma of the almonds"), and there is no direct statement that the cheese weakened the bitterness of the watercress. The role of the cheese is explained in the introduction as a substitute for salt and umami so the dish can be finished without added salt. This is recorded as the cook's practical knowledge, not as sensory data demonstrating the interaction of bitterness and umami.

Scope: Layer: recipe (an introduction by an instructor). Not a sensory experiment.

Note: This is a dressed dish involving salt-boiling, rinsing in water, ground sesame, soy sauce, and sugar, and is not a comparison isolating the cheese alone. The assessment 「まろやかにしてくれます」 (in translation: "mellows it") is stated by the instructor as a composite impression that includes the cheese's saltiness, umami, and fat content, and is not an experiment that measured the interaction of bitterness and umami.